History.com This Day in 1964: Cassius Clay

[Hissyspit]

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

1964 : Clay knocks out Liston

On February 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Clay shocks the odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice demolished former champ Floyd Patterson in one round, was an 8-to-1 favorite. However, Clay predicted victory, boasting that he would "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" and knock out Liston in the eighth round. The fleet-footed and loquacious youngster needed less time to make good on his claim--Liston, complaining of an injured shoulder, failed to answer the seventh-round bell. A few moments later, a new heavyweight champion was proclaimed.

- snip -

On February 25, 1964, a crowd of 8,300 spectators gathered at the Convention Hall arena in Miami Beach to see if Cassius Clay, who was nicknamed the "Louisville Lip," could put his money where his mouth was. The underdog proved no bragging fraud, and he danced and backpedaled away from Liston's powerful swings while delivering quick and punishing jabs to Liston's head. Liston hurt his shoulder in the first round, injuring some muscles as he swung for and missed his elusive target. By the time he decided to discontinue the bout between the sixth and seventh rounds, he and Clay were about equal in points. A few conjectured that Liston faked the injury and threw the fight, but there was no real evidence, such as a significant change in bidding odds just before the bout, to support this claim.

- snip -

Muhammad Ali would go on to become one of the 20th century's greatest sporting figures, as much for his social and political influence as his prowess in his chosen sport. After successfully defending his title nine times, it was stripped from him in 1967 after he refused induction into the U.S. Army on the grounds that he was a Muslim minister and therefore a conscientious objector. That year, he was sentenced to five years in prison for violating the Selective Service Act but was allowed to remain free as he appealed the decision. His popularity plummeted, but many across the world applauded his bold stand against the Vietnam War.

In 1970, he was allowed to return to the boxing ring, and the next year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali's draft evasion conviction. In 1974, he regained the heavyweight title in a match against George Foreman in Zaire and successfully defended it in a brutal 15-round contest against Joe Frazier in the Philippines in the following year. In 1978, he lost the title to Leon Spinks but later that year defeated Spinks in a rematch, making him the first boxer to win the heavyweight title three times. He retired in 1979 but returned to the ring twice in the early 1980s. In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome and has suffered a slow decline of his motor functions ever since. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1996, he lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Ali's daughter, Laila, made her boxing debut in 1999.

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[Buzz Clik]

1. My favorite athlete of all time by a huge margin.

On my top ten list of greatest human beings in my lifetime.

[Hissyspit]

2. Buzz...

no avatar??

[Buzz Clik]

7. Hm. Oh, my.

Have I been demoted?

===============

Loaded up one for the occasion.

[Hissyspit]

10. LOL

Very Good.

[madmax]

3. A great boxer and a world class Man. nt

[Kolesar]

4. "No Vietnamese ever did anything bad to me"

Ali had a quote to that effect when answering the call up.

There was a great biography of Ali on PBS. It may be watchable online.

He had some unpleasant things to say about his opponent, Joe Frazier. I remember my punk classmates coming to school and talking like him. Or trying to talk like him.

[roody]

6. I thought he said, "No Vietmanese ever called me nigger."

[H2O Man]

8. Right.

"I ain't got nothing against those Viet Cong. They never called me 'nigger.' "

[RagAss]

12. I was hoping you'd weigh-in on this thread...great quote...will never forget it.

[pinboy3niner]

15. I remember that

After being wounded by AK fire in VN and spending 18 months in the hospital, I was retired from the Army for partial disability.

Afterward, as a student at USC, I was sent to Washington, D.C. for a semester of study there and an internship with a dem Representative.

I wrote the Congressman's press release announcing and explaining Jimmy Carter's declaration of amnesty for VN War draft dodgers. As I drafted it, I couldn't help thinking of one particular man of conscience--Muhammad Ali...

[H2O Man]

16. I admire the fact

that he didn't take off -- although I'm not judging anyone who did -- but instead stood his ground. He was willing to go to prison. He knew that there were plenty of death threats being aimed in his direction. He was forced to miss the 30 months that would have been his prime fighting years.

Ali had faith in the Constitution, and the American justice system. He had the courage of his convictions.

[pinboy3niner]

18. I feel the same way you do, H2O Man

In the late '80s I went to speak about the war to a high school class in MD with several other vets.

We arrived to find "VIETNAM" spelled out in giant letters across the entire back wall of the classroom. We discovered that the letters were made of more than 58,000 straightpins--one for each U.S. militarity fatality in the war--that the teacher had had his students stick in the wall for 5 minutes every day.

We had the utmost respect for that teacher--when he was called up in the draft, he refused to go, and submitted to a sentence of two years in prison (I think he actually served 18 months, iirc).

I don't blame anyone for running to escape the draft. But I ADMIRE those who, like that teacher, stood up for their convictions and faced the consequences.

That's what I'd call a profile in courage.

[H2O Man]

17. I posted an essay

on DU:Sports on the fight, too.

[RagAss]

20. Thanks...going there now.

[Bandit]

5. Will there EVER be a time in America when we don't glorify violence and fighting?

:shrug: I guess the blood lust just runs too deep in this country. Such a savage nation..

[Buzz Clik]

9. My dad despised him, and we listened to the fight in the car.

He was pulling for Liston to "shut him up". Despite having heard every word of the fight on the radio, I never saw more than clips of the fight -- never the whole thing. ESPN Classic recently ran a series of classic fights last month, and I recorded it. It was amazing to see. He was such a remarkable athlete, but he evolved into so much more.

[H2O Man]

11. In my opinion,

it is one of the three greatest heavyweight title bouts ever. It's hard for people today to understand how intimidating Sonny Liston was. At the time, there were two opinions among experts -- Liston was the best since Louis, and Liston was even better than Louis. (I fall in the middle on that.)

Clay was young, and relatively unexperienced. He won the Olympics in a lighter weight class, and fought pro as heavyweight. Liston had a quicker climb in the amateurs, and then had been avoided by three heavyweight champions. Eventually, Patterson did fight him, but only after splitting with Cus.

Liston was a complex character. To much of the sports world and US, he was frightening. He had serious ties to the mafia. He hurt people.

My friend Rubin loves telling me about when he sparred Liston in Philly, before he won the title. Clay called Liston the "Big Bear," and Carter the "Little Bear." (Rubin fought seven guys from Clay/Ali's camp during his career.) He tells me that in sparring, even with "pillow" training gloves, he never felt anything like Liston's jab. When he took his headgear off, his ears were bleeding. He said he believed if he continued sparring Liston, he would literally be killed.

Clay had cut an LP, and the Beatles had visited his Miami training camp. Lots of fight people frowned on that. Plus, England's "Enry Cooper decked him, and blown-up light heavyweight Doug Jones had almost upset him at the Garden. (Styles make fights; Ken Norton used Jones' style in later years to frustrate the Champ.)

Very few people besides Angelo Dundee knew that the great Sonny Liston was actually facing the even greater Clay/Ali that night. Hard to believe it was that long ago!

[Buzz Clik]

13. Your friend Rubin.

The Little Bear. A guy with a much more famous nickname?

Whoa.

[H2O Man]

14. An interesting story:

(one I think you might like) In 1961, the NYS legislator was holding hearings on professional boxing. Remember, NY had outlawed the sport earlier; hence, there are not complete records of boxing in the early 1900s in the state. Anyhow, Clay and Carter were among witnesses being called.

Clay had begun using a fancy "walking stick" as a prop. Image-making. You may recall old photos of him, before he won the title, with that cane. A little boy approached Clay for an autograph, paper and pen in hand. Clay couldn't be bothered. He used his walking stick to knock the paper out of the child's hand.

"You're a big punk" Carter snarled at Clay. "Nothing but a punk!"

The two were not to become friends until 1973.

Clay/Ali began sending his sparring partners to fight Carter. While today, promotional corporations and the alphabet groups make fights, in those days, the various gyms played a bigger role. Now, Dundee liked Rubin, but Muhammad had a strong dislike for the Hurricane. So Sugar Boy Nando, Gomeo Brennan, Florentino Fernandez, Jimmy Ellis, Luis Rodriguez, and Ernie Buford -- all Ali's sparring partners -- were pitted against Rubin. Only Luisbeat Carter (twice, though he got off the canvas).

Even in '73, when Ali planned an exhibition at Rahway to bring attention to rube;s case, I can tell you that both guys were viewing it as more than just sparring! Carter had experience against heavyweights, first in amateur bouts, then in sparring sessions as a pro. He hadn't boxed in eight years. But he was training -- hard. He and I had a lot of conversations about that back then. Of course, the prison administrators put an end to the plan. (Ligh heavyweight James Scott fought in Rahway, including several bouts televised by ABC. Dwight Braxton (Qawi) was another guy Rubin trained in Rahway.)

[Buzz Clik]

19. You've lived some interesting moments, H2O Man.

Not the path taken by most.

:thumbsup: